Gordon Brown will probably take little comfort from the fact that in describing Gillian Duffy as a "bigoted woman" he is following in a long line of politicians whose ostensibly private comments have inadvertently been broadcast to a wider audience.

The most famous instance in British politics, prior to today at least, was in 1993 when John Major, then prime minister, was heard referring to the Eurosceptics in his cabinet who were dogging his premiership as "bastards", minutes after he had won a vote of confidence. The "bastards" were not named but were believed to be Michael Howard, Peter Lilley and Michael Portillo. Major had just given an interview at Downing Street to ITN's political editor, Michael Brunson, and did not realise he could still be heard but the BBC picked up the conversation and leaked it. The incident was embarrassing for Major but he held onto power until New Labour's landslide victory in 1997.

It will come as no surprise to followers of politics that George W Bush features in the annals of politicians who have made on-mic gaffes. But his comments to Tony Blair at the G8 summit in 2006 reflected worse on the then British prime minister than on the US president. Bush's greeting of "Yo Blair" was interpreted by many as proof of the lack of respect afforded to the British prime minister by the US leader and intensified criticism of Blair as Bush's "poodle".

Even before he became president, Bush was capable of putting his foot in his mouth. During his ultimately successful 2000 election campaign, unaware he was speaking in front of a live microphone, he whispered to Dick Cheney: "There's Adam Clymer, major league asshole from the New York Times." While Bush did not apologise for the comment he said: "I regret that a private comment I made to the vice-presidential candidate made it through the public airways."

One of Bush's predecessors, Ronald Reagan, was guilty of a joke in questionable taste when during a sound-check for his weekly radio address in 1984 he said: "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." Although it was not broadcast live, it was leaked. Reagan, who was running for re-election, saw his lead in the opinion polls dented but still won a second term.

More recently Vladimir Putin, then Russian president, was quoted by Russian media in 2006 as saying of his Israeli counterpart of the time, Moshe Katsav: "He turned out to be a strong man, raped 10 women." Katsav was under investigation for alleged rape and other sexual offences, in proceedings which are still ongoing. A Kremlin spokesman said the comments were meant as a joke and "in no way meant that president Putin welcomes rape".

While these incidents prove that Brown is not alone, there is one key difference – unlike Brown, in none of these instances was the politician with his foot in his mouth addressing an ordinary member of the public.